This year, one of her students has a feeding tube, while another has a shunt, which drains fluid from the head. Two others are non-verbal and require hands-on help to transition from one activity to another, she said.

"You have to be positive about it," she said of her work. "You have to always reinvent yourself and adapt."

Through its Birth to Three programs, the state identifies special needs children and assists them and their families. However, around their third birthdays, these children become eligible for special preschool programs provided by the district in five classrooms around the city.

These half-day classes are small, with about eight children in each at a time. Last year, however, enrollment began pushing that number higher, according to Wayne Holland, special education director for the Stamford school district.

Next year, Holland predicts the district will need to add at least one classroom.

Parents, however, don't always present themselves to the school system in the years before their child reaches kindergarten.

Over the summer, Cathy Coppola, head of the education assistants' union, learned of 18 unanticipated children with special needs who would be starting kindergarten in the fall. A lean budget meant there was no room to hire more assistants, so Coppola began looking for ways for some students to share assistants, who were recently renamed paraeducators.

Last week, she said she learned of the arrival of two more special education students at Dolan Middle School, both of whom would need the help of assistants.

Although parents often perceive changes like this to be caused by budget cuts, they aren't -- rather, an increase in demand is to blame.

"We need more," Coppola said.

The reduction of one-on-one assistance has happened intentionally, according to Holland.

"In the past, we have over-supported children with assistants," he said. The need to pull back from students whose Individualized Education Programs don't require one-on-one assistance and allow these children to grow is, at least, augmented by fiscal concerns.

"As educators, we learn better ways to do things," he said. "True success comes when you are able to do more with less."

Staff Writer Wynne Parry can be reached at 203-964-2263 or wynne.parry@scni.com.